Archive of Our Own ^beta

"...So, it was pretty fun, until we got caught in the rain."

Holm nodded, glancing up from Laios' sketchbook, filled with new drawings made during his earlier zoo trip. Kabru sat opposite him on the bed, his legs crossed, while Laios looked through the drawers of his desk, searching for his GameBoy and the right cartridge. Neither of them seemed bothered to have been caught in the rain, a fact that didn't seem particularly surprising coming from Laios, but was a first for Kabru, a man who typically avoided unexpected moisture in his hair at all costs, and perhaps understandably so. His hair didn't seem wet or frizzy at all, though. He must have dried it thoroughly in the short time between the moment they came home, and the moment Holm arrived. Laios presumably shook off the extra moisture like a dog, and left it at that without using a towel. Occasionally, a drop of water would drip down his forehead and get caught in his eyebrows, or down the nape of his neck, leaving small, wet spots on his shirt.

Laios' sketches were, as always, really good. His understanding of animal anatomy was impressive. Even in the most simplistic, rough sketches, one could perceive the animal as it was, three-dimensional, made of flesh, moving, alive. And then there were the detailed sketches, usually focused on specific body parts. Holm nodded to himself as he squinted at Laios' notes, surrounding the drawing, with arrows pointing towards the details he was musing about. He really was thorough.

Holm had heard a lot about Laios' room, back when Kabru told him everything about the development of their relationship. According to him, it was the single most interesting room he'd ever seen in his life, full of personality, a treasure trove of merchandise. Though Holm took Kabru's description with a grain of salt – it was clear that, in his mind, everything about Laios had become something of unmatched beauty and fascination – he still couldn't help but be curious about it. Kabru's flattery, he reasoned, may have been exaggerated, but it couldn't have been entirely unearned. After all, while Laios himself didn't seem remarkable at a glance, he turned out to be every bit as talented and eccentric as one could have expected from Kabru's description of him. It only made sense that his personality would rub off on his room in one way or another.

And so it did. Every corner of the room, every piece of furniture, every bit of free space, was occupied by something that immediately drew attention. Posters of dogs and Japanese monster movies, bookshelves filled to the brim with books of all kinds (though with an obvious emphasis on animals, he noted), cabinets full of figurines, large models standing around every flat surface in the room, binders, albums, drawers, various mysterious boxes... Holm had to squeeze his eyes shut and rub his temples for a while after he looked around the room for the first time, overwhelmed by the surrounding crowd of inanimate objects. Once the initial shock wore off, though, he grew to appreciate this space. Despite everything, it didn't feel suffocating at all.

It must have been an even bigger shock for Kabru, Holm thought, glancing at the boy curiously. His own room was so small, so barren, so devoid of anything that could have distinguished it from a hotel room. Kabru had some belongings, sure, but they were mostly clothes, not decorations, and certainly not toys (unless his collection of knives and daggers counted). Everything Kabru owned, he had to justify with a practical reason. If the room hadn't come with furniture, Kabru probably would have settled for sleeping on the floor, arguing that it was good enough. He didn't so much as hang a single picture on the wall. With that in mind, it wasn't a surprise that this room would leave such a big impression on him. It was even less surprising that he spent so much of his time here, more than he did in his own apartment. Laios' room was not only interesting, it was welcoming – at least to those who didn't mind the company of his countless creatures.

Kabru didn't seem like the kind of person who would feel comfortable here, and yet he seemed perfectly relaxed – and happy. He sat cross-legged on the bed, clutching a pillow in his lap, and watched Laios move around the room with a fond smile on his face. He wore an olive T-shirt, knee-length pants, and a pair of ankle-length socks, probably the most casual outfit he owned. Holm's expression softened into a smile. It was nice to see him like this. Holm had seen Kabru in all kinds of situations through the years, and he always admired his ability to remain calm no matter the circumstances. He never once seemed overwhelmed to an outside observer. Of course, the artificiality of his behaviour was obvious to those who knew him well. That was exactly why the absence of it was so striking. Kabru didn't seem relaxed – he sincerely was.

"Ah, Kabru!" Laios prompted, turning his head to glance at Kabru over his shoulder. "Would you mind if I showed him my drawings of you? The ones," he added, "that are okay to show."

For a moment, Kabru's face fell. The corners of his mouth dropped and his eyebrow twitched. He cleared his throat and collected himself instantly, tapping his fingers on his knees. "Oh, of course! Why not, right? After all, it's not as if Holm hasn't seen me before," he added jokingly.

Laios put his GameBoy down on the desk, picked up a binder from the top of the bookshelf and handed it to Holm, bowing his head, and finally picked his GameBoy up again. Holm raised his eyebrows as he cautiously touched the binder. It had been a while since they talked about Laios' art of Kabru. Truthfully, he didn't expect him to remember it anymore, but it seemed that he had just been waiting for a good opportunity to share his work. Holm stroked his chin. At this point, he was familiar with the way Laios drew animals – realistic and highly detailed. On the contrary, he had no idea what to expect from his sketches of Kabru. What he'd heard before was vague and puzzling. According to Kabru, the first time he saw Laios' charcoal sketch of him in class, it spoke to something deep in his soul. Also according to Kabru, Laios could only draw stick figures until the two of them started practicing in private – a month later. Those two ideas seemed incongruent. Mutually exclusive, even. Laios had improved since then, or so Kabru said. No more stick figures, then. Presumably. Did he master realism this quickly? There was only one way to find out.

When Holm opened the binder, he was greeted with a sketch of Kabru's smiling face. It wasn't exactly realistic, not in the way Laios' animal sketches were. There were certain details Laios obviously struggled with. Kabru's eyes were rendered beautifully, surrounded by long, dark eyelashes. Laios even managed to capture the striking brightness of his eyes, contrastic his warm, brown complexion. Kabru's ears, on the other hand, had become vague, formless shapes, only recognisable by their position on his head. Kabru's lips were depicted in loving detail, soft, smooth, and plump, with the corners slightly curled. Kabru's nose, meanwhile, maintained its general shape, but had something distinctly off about it, as if at one point Laios tried to turn it into a more feline shape and changed his mind last minute. Kabru's hair was sketched meticulously, curl by curl, including some stray hairs here and there. Did Laios draw this from memory...?

Holm flipped through the pages, shaking his head in disbelief. He recognised every single one of Kabru's expressions, and could pinpoint exactly when he usually made them. Eyebrows raised, eyes twinkling, mouth hidden behind a poorly, but lovingly-drawn hand – Kabru's usual sneaky smile. Eyebrows knitted, eyes screwed up to the ceiling, lips pursed, finger stroking the chin – that was Kabru pondering something, deep in thought. Eyelids lowered, eyebrows forming gentle arches, lips curled into a cat-like smile – Kabru pleased with an observation he made. The close-eyed smug smile. The rare open-mouthed laughter, just barely covered by his hand. All of these expressions, in a frontal view, were accompanied by profile views, and occasionally notes, as well as pages upon pages filled with studies of specific details. Sketches of Kabru's eyes, his teeth, the inside of his mouth. On top of that there were sketches depicting Kabru with certain animalistic features, the hints of which Holm noticed before. It seemed that Laios was especially eager to replace Kabru's ears with just about anything else. Sometimes, he gave him fangs or whiskers, or slit pupils. Holm nodded to himself. He suspected that this would be the case. Wonder how Kabru felt about it.

He looked up and instinctively winced. While he was flipping through the binder, Laios sat down on the bed opposite him, and was already setting up everything on his GameBoy, seemingly unaware of everything that was going on around him – or, more specifically, behind him. Kabru had wrapped himself around him from behind, with his legs around his waist and his arms around his chest, and was currently peppering the nape of his neck with kisses. Holm clicked his tongue and shook his head disapprovingly as he put the binder aside. He would never be comfortable in the presence of such blatant displays of affection, he suspected. Not out of jealousy, or anything of that sort. Of course not. It simply felt awkward, and a little distasteful, as if he was being forced to see something he truly shouldn't be privy to. There was something provocative about it, wasn't there? Especially coming from Kabru, a man so conscious of the perception of others.

And yet, once the initial wave of distaste washed over him and promptly disappeared, Holm found, much to his surprise, that he couldn't be mad about it at all. He didn't feel tempted to look away, pretending that he didn't notice anything, nor to catch Kabru's attention in order to send him a disapproving look (which, granted, would presumably only encourage him more anyway). Indeed, he found himself mesmerised by the sight of Kabru clinging into Laios, closing his legs around his hips, folding his arms over his chest, pulling him as close as possible, rubbing his cheek against the nape of his neck, with closed eyes and a tender, relaxed smile. It reminded him of something... a kitten rubbing its body against the owner's leg, perhaps? Holm let out a soft sigh, his eyes still focused on Kabru as he retrieved his own GameBoy and booted up the game.

Laios didn't seem to react to Kabru's affection at all. Not the arms wrapped around him, not the cheek rubbing against his neck, not the kisses pressed to his bare skin. His gaze was focused on the screen of the handheld console, and his expression was that of perfect concentration. Holm stroked his chin curiously. Was he so used to it that he no longer reacted to it at all? Holm only saw the two of them together once, before they started dating. Kabru was already clinging onto him then, holding his hand, leaning on his shoulder, not taking his eyes off his face. Presumably he was even more affectionate behind closed doors, especially since the two of them officially became a couple.

Despite everything, Holm found it hard to imagine. Not just because it felt inappropriate to think about such things but, mostly, because of what he knew about Kabru. Was he passionate? Yes, indeed, more than he would like to admit. There were plenty of things that could get an emotional reaction out of him, plenty of causes he was deeply invested in. Was he flirty? Well, that would be difficult to deny. Kabru was proud of his reputation as a good kisser, and entertained by flirtatious interactions, finding the most effective compliments and smooth innuendo. But affectionate, he was not. Never. He guarded his body from the touch of others, and used touch as a tool the same way he used his words. A pat on the back for moral support. A hand taken into his so that he could pretend to read one's fortune. He was reluctant to give hugs or receive them. Even in his most audacious endeavours, he was careful and calculated – as far as Holm knew, at least.

And yet, there he was, melting against Laios, wrapping his body around him tightly, protectively, as if he feared that somebody was going to take it away from him. It was very obvious, embarrassingly needy, and thoroughly innocent. He really did like this boy, Holm thought, and felt relieved and anxious at the same time. He never mentioned any concerns about this relationship to Kabru, but that didn't mean that he didn't have them. Kabru seemed adamant that the two of them would stay together forever and their feelings would never change. It was a nice thought. For their sake, Holm hoped that it would work out like that. But Kabru's words didn't exactly fill him with confidence. Forever was a long time, and these two had only known each other for three months. So far, things seemed to have been going fine, but Holm couldn't shake the feeling that by setting such a goal, Kabru was putting too much pressure on himself. That was what he always did.

It was one of the many concerning aspects of Kabru's personality. His passion wasn't a bad thing, far from it. But it could only last for so long before it would burn him out from the inside. Kabru cared too deeply, about too many things. He struggled to decide on a career path, because he wanted to do everything at once. Everything was important, and everything depended on him. Education, politics, literacy. He carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, and never gave himself a moment of respite. It seemed that he added yet another cause onto the pile. For once, it was a specific person who, he thought, needed his help. A lonely, bullied boy with no friends, artistic and culinary talent, and a good heart. Hopefully, Holm thought uneasily, he wouldn't let Kabru crumble under the pressure he put on himself. He seemed to be doing a good job of it so far.

"Are you ready?" Laios asked, suddenly looking up at him. Startled, Holm forced a smile,

"I'm ready," he hummed, looking down at his screen. "Let me know when you want to start."

Kabru rested his chin upon Laios' shoulder and looked down at the screen with a curious twinkle in his eye. For his benefit, since he was unfamiliar with the mechanic, Laios started explaining patiently as he linked the consoles together with a short cable: "We're gonna trade now. It's not hard, but it's gonna be pretty slow, because you have to do it one by one, and there's a lot of Pokemon we need to trade." Kabru nodded to indicate that he was listening. "There are two main reasons to trade Pokemon," Laios went on, putting up his index finger. "One, some Pokemon only evolve when you trade them. In the first games, there were four Pokemon that evolved like that. Gengar, Golem, Machamp and Alakazam. Gengar isn't in these games," he added, pursing his lips, obviously displeased, "but we can get the other ones, so I guess it's okay."

Pokemon passed back and forth between the games, evolving as soon as they arrived on the other side. The process itself didn't take long at all, but it would have to be repeated many, many times. As he spoke, Kabru's eyes moved from Laios' screen onto his lips, staring intently.

"Pokemon couldn't hold items, in the first games, but now they can," Laios went on, wagging his finger absent-mndedly right in front of Kabru's face, "and sometimes they need to hold an item when you trade them to evolve. I don't really know why Poliwhirl needs to hold the King's Rock to evolve into Politoed, but the others make a lot more sense," he explained excitedly. "When Slowpoke evolves into Slowking, the shell on its head is kind of like a crown. When Scyther and Onix evolve into Scizor and Steelix, the Metal Coat covers their bodies in steel. Seadra uses the Dragon Scale to gain a dragon type when it evolves into Kingdra, which is pretty cool! And Porygon gets an Upgrade," he added, scratching his cheek, "and evolves into Porygon2. The items make sense," he huffed, "but it's kind of annoying that you have to trade them. Most of them aren't in the game anyway, except for Kingdra. I didn't know that. I wanted Scizor," he whined.

Holm sent him the most pleasant smile. "Maybe another time," he suggested.

"I hope so," Laios said, pouting impatiently. "There's only one new trade evolution in these games, but it's a pretty cool one. I mean, Clamperl isn't cool," he added disapprovingly, "but it's cool that it can evolve into two different Pokemon depending on the item you use. Huntail is much better, though," he added, nodding his head. "Gorebyss is kind of creepy," he added, grimacing.

"Did you notice," Holm hummed, watching the Pokemon on his screen evolve, "that the shape of Huntail's tail resembles Gorebyss' head? It's a lure."

"Oh, yeah." Laios tilted his head. "Huh. Now that you mention it, yeah, I see it! That's pretty cool," he murmured, nodding to himself. Holm could all but hear the gears turning in his head. "That's all the trade evolutions. Do you know," he asked, turning towards Kabru, "what's the other reason why people trade Pokemon?" Put on the spot Kabru knitted his eyebrows and puffed out his cheeks, glancing around the room as if looking for a hint. Not waiting for an answer, Laios put up another finger. "Because there are some Pokemon you can't get in your game! There are a lot of reasons for that," he went on, looking down at the screen again. "You have to choose between three Pokemon at the start, so you'd have to trade for the other two. You only get one fossil, so you have to trade for the other one. In the first games, there was no breeding, so you'd only get one of Eevee's three evolutions, too. There are also Pokemon that you'd never be able to get in your version, not because of your choices, but because they don't appear in the wild. In our case," he went on, "I've got Seedot, Mawile, Zangoose, Solrock, Latios and Groudon, and he's got Lotad, Sableye, Lunatone, Latias and Kyogre. Most of them are easy to get, you can just catch a second one or breed them. Except for Latias, Latios, Groudon and Kyogre, because they're legendary, so you only get one."

"What are you going to do about it, then? I suppose it's the same case as the first generation, isn't it?" Kabru asked. "You can trade one for the other, I suppose, but neither of you will be able to have both of them at the same time. That's quite troublesome." Laios offered a shrug.

"We can just trade them back once they're registered in the Pokedex."

"Actually," Holm chimed in sheepishly, "you can keep them both. I don't mind."

"Wha...?" Laios stared at him wide-eyed, mouth agape. Holm leaned back, caught off guard by the expression. He'd gotten used to Laios' neutral expression that never seemed to change drastically – until now. He must have been really surprised. "No, no, no!" he protested, putting his hands up as he shook his head. His face immediately gained a subtle pinkish tint. "I can't! I mean, you're not gonna get another one, right?" He stroked the back of his head. "It's not fair to you."

Holm lightly shook his head. "It's okay. I'll get another one if I want to. Don't worry about it. After all," he added, putting his hand on Laios' knee, "it's your birthday, right? Let this be my gift." He intended to do this all along. He was prepared to combat Laios' resistance.

Laios inhaled sharply and looked off to the side, his cheeks visibly flushing as he gripped the console in his hands. "I... I mean," he stammered, squeezing his eyes shut, "if you're okay with it, then I guess..." he murmured, tapping his fingers together, trying and failing not to show just how badly he wanted to take him up on the offer. "Then I guess we can do it. If you want to."

Holm sent him his sunniest, most reassuring smile as he set up the trade before Laios could change his mind. The more time he spent with the boy, the better he understood Kabru's fondness for him. Looking at both of them – Laios staring wide-eyed at the screen, breathing heavily with anticipation, and Kabru, resting his cheek against his shoulder, bright blue eyes zeroing in on his lips, he could only wish them the best – forever.